Why Long-Term Liquidity Trends Matter More Than Interest Rates for Property Growth

Most property investors overlook the game-changing insights hidden in detailed data—until now. 

Katey Battenally reveals exactly how understanding market trends, property appraisals, and long-term forecasts can help you make smarter investment decisions, even amid economic chaos. 

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by rising rates, geopolitical tensions, and mixed market signals, this episode will change your perspective.

Katey shares a behind-the-scenes look at her personal property journey, from purchasing a mid-tier South Australian home to the eye-opening data-driven analysis provided by Dashdot. 

Discover how their innovative 15-month price and rent predictions have revealed the true potential of her property, including a 25.2% growth in just two years—without guesswork or luck. 

She breaks down the critical performance indicators that can tell you when to hold, sell, or buy—and how to navigate a fragmented market with confidence.

We break down the specific metrics that matter, including median house prices, supply-demand dynamics, local employment data, and population trends. 

You’ll discover how Dashdot’s comprehensive assessment captured the quieter signals of the property landscape—like slowing population growth and shifting economic resilience—that can make or break your future gains. 

This episode reveals how disciplined data analysis, long-term liquidity flow, and strategic timing are your best defenses against the noise of today’s volatility.

Why does this matter? Because avoiding impulsive decisions and honing-in on detailed, actionable insights can protect your wealth during turbulent times. The truly savvy investors are those equipped with precise, up-to-date intelligence—who act patiently, but decisively, when the opportunity aligns with their long-term goals. 

Don’t rely on speculation or sentiment; leverage proven data to stay ahead.

Perfect for aspiring investors, seasoned property owners, or anyone feeling cautious about the market’s chaos—this episode transforms uncertainty into opportunity. 

Whether you’re just starting or considering your next move, Katey’s story and the Dashdot insights will equip you with the tools to build a resilient, growth-oriented property portfolio. Turn market noise into your advantage—download now and start making smarter, data-backed decisions today.

This episode highlights concrete results, specific metrics, and actionable insights, creating curiosity and promising transformation for both new and experienced investors. The tone sparks confidence while emphasising the importance of strategic, data-driven decision-making.

Follow us at @the_wingpodaus on Instagram and subscribe to @TheWingPodcastAu on Youtube to stay connected to every episode.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the Wing, the emotional and financial health check you never knew you needed. We provide tangible solutions for young women to build emotional health and wealth on their journey from school to motherhood. This is the podcast for young women in Australia navigating the big stuff. Life, money, and motherhood. From high school to first homes, babies to bank accounts, we take you on an interactive listening journey that helps you make smart, empowered decisions every step of the way.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Hello ladies, welcome to another episode of The Wing. Today my hair is in a bun and the baby is in the other room, so I'm going to do my best to record this as smoothly as possible. Today the topic is around property as well, but I'm going to share with you our personal property portfolio details. Not all of them, but the one that matters. Probably, maybe, maybe not the most, but it's definitely up there because this is a significant part of our property portfolio. It's more details on the property that we purchased through Dashdot. So we received our portfolio health check, which comes to us every six months. It's created to assess our current portfolio performance and the next action steps we need to take in order to move us closer to our goals. In the document, there is a completed equity assessment of our current property, the reviewed median sales price and supply and demand data in the suburbs where we own the property. And it has provided us with cutting-edge 15-month price and rent predictions that the in-house data and tech team at Dashdot have spent years creating. So what I'll do is I'll just get straight into it. So it's a little stats dense, but hopefully this makes sense and it can give you an idea on what might be actually possible for you if you decide to start investing in your property portfolio. So as I've mentioned in some previous episodes, uh Dash Dort purchased us a property in Port Lincoln, South Australia. I have openly said in the past that I did not know Port Lincoln was a place. Oh, that's terrible. But it is, and we have a house there, so uh that's pretty cool. Now we purchased the property in April 2024. So we purchased it for$650,000. Our gross yield is 5.04%. So it's officially been 24 months since purchase, so two years. Now, our April 2026 prop track valuation sits the property at$813,824. So the growth since the purchase has been 25.2%, which is huge, by the way. And I'm not claiming any uh props for this because this wasn't us, this was dash. The total dollar growth since purchase has been over$163,000, and our return on capital invested has been 68%, just over 68%. So for any of you wondering what all of those stats mean, um I can give you a bit of a reference point. To give you an idea on some stats in terms of suburb performance and benchmarking. So in September 2025, dash dot vs capitals outperformed by 184%. Dashdot vs regionals, these are areas, outperformed the averages by 151%. And number of dash dot suburbs in scope for the calculation of dash dot suburbs annual price growth is 82. So these numbers might just all sound like numbers, uh, which they are, but it's giving you an idea on what the actual product and service is able to achieve for you if you are a Dash Dot client. So, as I've said too, it's unlikely that you're going to be able to purchase a property and have these types of results just from winging it or from having a sort of substandard strategy or guessing. To give you an idea on some of the more detailed information that Dash Dot gave us about our property, so telling us things about the area, and this is all completely data driven, so this is everything they're able to see that we can't. So in Port Lincoln, there's a population of 15,178 people, up from 14,120 at the previous census, which is 8% growth across the last five-year period. That pace is moderate, and the five-year forecast of 15,367 implies only 1% growth ahead. So population expansion is decelerating materially from the recent trend. The local workforce is anchored by healthcare and social assistance at 16%, retail trade at 13%, and agriculture, forestry and fishing at 9%. A mix that gives the economy some resilience because it is not reliant on a single industry. The unemployment rate is 5%, matching the state's average of 5%, which suggests the labor market is steady rather than weak in this situation. Median weekly household income is about$1,200, above the prior$1,000 by 15%, showing solid growth in spending capacity. However, it remains below the state median of 1,400-ish. So local purchasing power is still relatively constrained despite the improvement. The combination of income growth and a 5% unemployment rate points to stable housing demand, but the modest 1% five-year population outlook limits the case for rapid market expansion. So they're telling us here that the growth that we've experienced is probably, we're probably getting to the pointy end of the growth. So it's they're probably going to be telling us to look at selling this property soon. Overall, Port Lincoln presents a steady income-supported market with moderate resilience from its 16%, 13%, 9% employment pillars. But it's not a high growth investment setting given the 8% past population rise versus only 1% forecast growth. So, again, lots of numbers, but it's all making sense to us in terms of, okay, well, we've purchased this property two years ago. It has experienced the growth that Dashdot had predicted it to, and we're now sitting in a situation where we need to look at are we going to buy, hold, or sell this property? That's a decision that Jake and I will obviously need to have an input in, but ultimately we're going to be following what Dashdot tells us because they are the ones with all of the information that we need. A message from Dashdot that ties into some of the decisions that we are making, but also a bit of a broader scope on what is happening in the market. So I'm referencing some of their content directly here so that it is correct and accurate. So we know this environment feels heavy. Fuel costs, rate hikes, and geopolitical tension pulling in every direction at once. And that is exactly why the platform that Dashdot presents is in existence so that we can listen through the noise and understand clearly what we need to be thinking about as property investors. The property portfolios with Dashdot are built for environments like this. The structural logic of our plan, if anything, the data reinforces why long-term positioning matters more than short-term sentiment. So at the moment, Australians are under pressure from every direction. Fuel costs have surged more than 60 cents a litre since February, even after the excise cut. The RBA was hiked twice this year. The latest Westpac survey showed consumer sentiment dropping 12.5% in a single month, but the biggest drop since COVID. And yet national dwelling values rose 9.9% over the past year. Auction clearance rates have dipped below 60%, meaning fewer people are acting, but prices are not following sentiment down. The gap between how people feel and what the property market is doing has rarely been this wide. So talking about rates, and it's always a scary word or it's always something that's flagged in the news media plenty. Like the rate debate is loud, the liquidity story is quieter and more important. So if you're looking at it through a slightly different lens, most commentary centers on whether the RBA hikes again in May. That matters for household budgets, but the relationship between interest rates and property price direction is far weaker than most people assume. What drives property prices at the macro level is liquidity. M3 money supply is at a record 3.40 trillion, growing 6% annually. That expansion doesn't pause for rate hikes. For investors making 10-year decisions, the liquidity tide matters more than the next 25 basis points. So setting yourself up for long-term success, as I have reiterated and am so passionate about, is what's going to help your property portfolio and your investment strategy withstand market changes. So it's interesting. The market is deeply fragmented across the country. So Perth at 2.3% in February, Brisbane at positive 1.6%, and Adelaide at positive 1.3% keep posing strong monthly gains, supported by listings at 40, over 40% below five-year averages. So regional markets are outperforming capitals. Rental growth has accelerated to positive 5.7% annually, but auction clearance rates having dropped below 60% for two consecutive weeks. Buyers are being more cautious. Activity is slowing even as prices hold. So what does this all mean for property investors? This is a confidence crisis layered on a cost of living crisis, layered on a geopolitical crisis. If you're feeling overwhelmed, you're reading the environment accurately. But there's a pattern worth noting. The Westpac time to buy a dwelling subindex actually rose 3.5% in April, the only component of the entire survey to improve. People who purchased through COVID in 2020 captured some of the strongest capital growth outcomes in Australian modern property history. Those who bought through the 2022-2023 rate hikes are sitting on significant gains. Sentiment drops, activity slows, prices hold, and then recover. Meanwhile, the money supply keeps expanding at roughly 6% per year, while housing supply falls short. This is exactly the environment where disciplined acquisition matters most. Not rushing, but not drifting either. Your strategy needs to be built to move when the right property meets the right fundamentals. That process doesn't stop because sentiment dips. So as I said, a reasonably dense episode and a pretty quick one because it's kind of it is time relevant and it is relevant to the current environment that we are all living in and experiencing and receiving mixed or confusing messages from news media. So to be able to break it down in a real life example of the case study of the property that we purchased with Dash Dot, the results that we've experienced over the last two years with that property and what move we're going to make next, which we will find out from Dashdot, based on their 15-month price and rent forecasting model. We will be able to make informed decisions and not allow the external noise to shift our investing strategy, particularly with our property portfolio. If you are thinking about investing, I highly recommend that you book a 15-minute discovery call with the Dashdot team. You can do that through my link in bio and click through there and book that in. It won't cost you anything. You'll move on to the next phase if you are a good fit for Dashdot and Dashdot is a good fit for you, onto a 45-minute strategy session whereby you can go through all your goals and all of your own personal details before you decide if a strategic acquisition is the right move for you. What I would recommend is at least having those conversations, because if you don't understand the lay of the land for you in your own situation right now, you're certainly not going to understand it in the future. So being able to build a property portfolio that is going to withstand market changes and not throw you off course is going to be the most important way that you are going to be able to achieve success and achieve, hopefully, financial freedom a lot sooner. Thank you for listening to another episode of The Wing. I hope this was insightful and thank you for listening to my details on our individual property purchase and look forward to sharing with you the next episode of The Wing. Bye bye.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

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